Web Sites and Organizational-Public Relationships
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toward the brand, or Abrand (Mitchell & Olson, 1981). Generally, if positive attitudes are assumed to
lead to mutually beneficial behaviors, the existence of positive attitudes toward an organization is a
necessary condition for a relationship building as well.
Web sites that generate positive assessments of a sponsoring organization clearly contribute to
relationship building, contrasted with those that generate only neutral or negative responses. At least five
different attitudinal measures might be appropriate in a given circumstance. General liking of the
organization involves the degree to which an individual develops a positive (versus negative)
predisposition toward the organization: good v. bad, positive v. negative, etc. Relevance measures the
degree to which an individual thinks an organization’s actions have consequences or are important in
their lives (involving): important to me v. not important to me, impacts my life v. doesn’t impact my life.
Identification involves the degree to which an individual believes an organization shares similar interests
and values and thus the individual might develop the sense an organization is similar to him or her:
similar to me v. not similar to me, values are like mine v. values are not like mine. Affinity analyzes the
degree to which an individual wants to become affiliated formally with the organization as an employee,
customer, investor, supporter etc.: would like to join v. would not like to join. Intent predicts the degree to
which an individual states future plans to take a particular action related to the web content, e.g. want
to/willing to/desire to/hope to/intend to/probably will purchase a product (or use a service, vote for a
candidate, change risky behaviors, etc.)
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Assessments of organization’s performance. Assuming that an online user has sufficient
experience to form a more advanced opinion about the organizations, the various perceptual messages
suggested previously by public relations researchers are also appropriate (Hon & Grunig, 1999; Huang,
2000; Ledingham & Bruning, 2000). These include assessments of an organization’s trustworthiness and
commitment, and the individual’s perceptions about control mutuality and satisfaction (see Garbarino &
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Behavioral intent is an extension of affective measures that bridges pure affect and pure affect. The utility of
behavioral intent is rooted in Ajzen & Fishbein’s theory of reasoned action and theory of planned action (See Ajzen
& Fishbein ,1980; Sheppard, Hartwick & Warshaw, 1988).
Convention